


Love Me Anyway

by TylerM



Category: Shazam! (2019), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Billy has a family, Bullied Freddy, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, Family Fluff, Fluff, Home, Hurt Billy Batson, Hurt/Comfort, family fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 06:52:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18544534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TylerM/pseuds/TylerM
Summary: “I got into a fight, I’m really sorry.” Billy doesn’t look at her when he says it. He wishes he could sink into the floor at that moment, he doesn’t need to look at her to know she’s disappointed. Probably calculating how she can get this violent kid out of her home.“I hope the other guy looks worse then,” Victor tries to make a joke but Rosa glares at him.She eyes Billy suspiciously, because while it’s obvious there was a fight Billy is not a violent kid by nature. She turns to Freddy who looks about as exasperate as she feels.“That’s-that’s not. Billy!” Freddy exclaims, both parents turn to him, “It isn’t like that.”-/-/-/-/-/-The one where Billy gets beat up by bullies and looked after by his foster parents, discovering that maybe families do stick around sometimes.





	Love Me Anyway

**Author's Note:**

> Nobody anywhere ever:  
> Me: Shazam! really needs an awful fluff fic
> 
> \-------  
> I've only seen the movie once, this idea came to my head. I don't care if its a bit out of character or whatever, I Just needed a cute Billy fic with Rosa and Victor because the whole situation was so cute.

“Hey, losers!”

In hindsight, for a teenager who regularly turns into an awesome super hero and fights bad guys, calling out _hey losers_ to two of the schools worst bullies before shoving one into a locker was probably not his coolest more. Nor was it his most sensible either, as now he was the target of attack.

As long as they weren’t shoving Freddy into any more locker though, Billy thought it was probably worth it.

He would like to say he puts up a valiant fight, but it’s two on one and they’re both bigger them him. Plus, there’s something behind the attack today, something more malicious then usual. Like they want to cause actual pain, the bullies’ eyes are full of rage and hatred and _it hurts._ He gets a black eye, bruised ribs and what could potentially be a twisted ankle for his troubles. They leave with one final shove causing Billy to land on his ass on the hard ground, and spit at him for good measure as they wonder off. Billy clutches his side painfully, trying not to breathe too deeply to aggravate it more.

He doesn’t know what was up with them today, sure they usually pick on him and Freddy regularly, but it never ends this visible.

“Holy shit man are you okay?” Freddy leans down and grabs Billys chin expecting his eye.

Billy shoves him away and stands up groaning, “Come on we’ve got to get out of here before anyone sees.”

Freddy looks at him like he has lost his mind, “Or we could go to the nurse, because I think you should probably see a nurse. Or you know, maybe a teacher? The principal perhaps?” Freddy tries to reason.

Freddy’s all for sticking up for themselves and looking out for each other, and specifically not ratting out bullies because it usually just ends up worse. But they’ve never caused this much damage either. This isn’t high school bullying anymore, this isn’t a suitcase wedgie, this is basically a full-on assault. Billy’s nose is bleeding and his eye is already turning a nice shade of purple. They beat him hard. They can’t let this slide.

Plus, Billy is hurt because he couldn’t help running his mouth again and the guys were particularly vengeful today, if Billy hadn’t interfered Freddy would be the one with the black eye and then that would be hard to explain. Even though they’re all secretly superheroes, without Shazam they’re as defenseless as everyone else.

Looking at the way Billy winces as he walks outside to collapse on a bench away from everyone, hood pulled up over his head reminds him that. He looks just like any other teenager who got their ass beat.

“It’s fine, it’s just a few bruises,” Billy finally says, but his eyes are squinted in pain as he tries to control his breathing.

Freddy doesn’t need to be a genius to figure out its way more than a few bruises.

“Billy, you’re being ridiculous. What are Rosa and Victor going to say when they see you? They’re going to be furious!” Freddy says and he immediately regrets his accusatory tone as he witnesses Billy’s whole frame seize up.

It’s no secret Billy has sever abandonment issues, and also that he will deny it black and blue. They’re foster kids, they’ve all got it hard. But Billy is used to running away from people, he’s never stayed long in one place and this whole family thing is painfully new to him. He doesn’t say much, compared to when his Shazam he’s unusually quiet most of the time, but Freddy can see the way everything that shouldn’t be is new and unfamiliar to him. He can see the way Billy is trying to embrace it but also being petrified of it. It does not take a genius to see that Billy is just waiting for it all to be snatched from him in an instant.

Like the first time Rosa came into say goodnight kissing them both on the head, and the way she keeps doing it every night. He looks startled every time she comes into their room telling them to go to bed. Like he’s used to people getting bored of him.

Or like when he showed a bit of interest in guitar lessons and Victor had come home the next week with his old guitar from his parents’ house insisting Billy could start lessons. Nobody said anything but they saw the tears well up in his eyes.

Or the first time Billy brought home a math test with a B+ on it. Math isn’t his strongest subject, but he was pretty proud of that one, Freddy could tell. He didn’t say anything though, but Freddy had let it slip at dinner where Rosa had then demanded he go fetch it so she could put it on the fridge. Freddy doesn’t think he’s ever seen someone so embarrassed over a math test.

But then there’s the other things, like when Victor was play wrestling with Freddy, and he went to pull Billy in playfully and he had flinched violently. A startled look on his face like a deer caught in head lights and they all froze for a second. Luckily Victor is awesome, and he managed to defuse the tension by still pulling Billy in and being extra gentle with him, making him feel like there was nothing wrong and getting him to smile. After, Victor had pulled Billy in for a tight hug kissing the top of his head, a silent reassurance that he would never hurt him. Freddy saw it but he pretended for Billy’s sake he didn’t, the tips of his ears were red all night.

Billy doesn’t say much, so nobody is sure just what happened at all the other foster homes. Sure he was looking for his mother, sure he had a determined dream hell bent on keeping the world out to ensure he could one day let her in. But Freddy has been in the system, he knows sometimes you don’t just run away because you can. Sometimes you do because you have to.

“You can’t tell Rosa and Victor,” Billy says determined pulling Freddy out of his thoughts.

Freddy rolls his eyes because _really_?

“Dude I won’t have to, they’ll take one look at you and take you to the ER,”

Billy frowns, “I’m not going to the emergency room.”

“I’m sorry have you met our foster mom? If she wants you in the ER you’re going to the ER,” Freddy counters, but Billy still glares.

Freddy always calls Rosa ‘our foster mom’ when he really wants to make it clear to Billy that he’s being ridiculous about some kind of family issue. Billy is stuck with them no matter what he thinks, they’re not getting rid of him.

Billy sighs deeply and then immediately regrets it because of his ribs. He doesn’t think they’re broken, but he’s not stupid they are seriously bruised. “Look, just let me handle it okay? I’m fine, I promise.”

Billy tries to plead but by the look of it Freddy isn’t having it. Freddy can see right through him sometimes and it’s incredibly scary.

“Billy, seriously. Don’t be dumb right now,” Freddy says, having just about enough of his foster brother, not only is he being ridiculous but Freddy is feeling pretty guilty as it’s his fault he even looks like this, “I don’t know what you’re planning on doing but frankly I see no planet where this doesn’t end up with you swaddled in blankets coddled on the couch by Rosa while Victor goes off at the school board tomorrow. I know you Billy and I know you have some ridiculous notion in your head right now that they’re for some reason going to be mad at you, but they’re not going to okay. And you need medical attention. Please just let’s go home and they’ll fix it.”

Billy avoids Freddy’s gaze as the tips of his eyes go red. He’s been with the Vasquez family for a few months now and he thinks he knows they won’t get rid of him. They’ve shown that plenty of times, but it’s hard not to fall back on his default reaction. So many people leave and get bored of him, and his own mother didn’t even want him so why would good people want a delinquent kid that can’t even stay out of fights. He’s been kicked out of plenty of foster homes for less.

He’s trying though, and he really wants this to be true because this family is without a doubt the best thing to ever happen to him and he doesn’t want to screw it up. But its exhausting constantly trying to prove that he’s worth the trouble, it feels like his on guard 24/7 with anxiety and restlessness that he’s going to mess up. He hates it, but he is trying to be worth it.

A painful stab in his side reminds him that he is in a lot of pain, and he grits looking up at Freddy glaring at him. He knows its not his most menacing glare though, because Freddy just raises his eyebrow.

He just stands up slowly and he makes his way limping in the direction of home, Freddy trailing along beside him smiling knowing he’s won.

“See there you go, best decision you’ve made all day.” Freddy commends and Billy glares at him.

“Just let me do the talking okay?” Billy almost pleads and Freddy replies.

“Of course, man I’ve got your back,” He pats him on the back encouragingly but Billy winces.

-/-/-/-/-/-

Letting Billy do the talking lasts about 1 minute and 24 seconds when they walk through the doors, which is about a minute and 10 more seconds then Billy actually thought Freddy would last.  

See Billy did have a plan. It had been to get inside, go straight up to the bathroom to inspect the damage himself and see what he could salvage, he’d dealt with enough in the past that he thought he could make it seem better then it was. Then walk into the kitchen as confidently and cool as possible, playing off the black eye as nothing and hoping _someone_ bought it. He didn’t necessary expect them to buy it, but he figured at least that would give him some control over the situation and as long as he let Rosa inspect it and coddle him a bit it would be fine.

That was another thing Billy was trying to get used to, the idea that these people actually wanted to help him, look after him even. He was so used to doing it by himself the notion seemed like something from another planet. Rosa appeared to love mothering them, Billy wasn’t used to that.

When they walked in the house, Billy’s hood clasped firmly over his head he made a beeline for the stairs.

“What are you doing?” Freddy whisper/yelled from the bottom of the staircase as Billy tried to make a quick escape.

Billy turned back to him, keeping his head low and darting around to check if they’d been spotted yet. Rosa would be waiting for them to come home from school to ask them about their day, he didn’t have much time.

“I’m just going to go clean it up a bit,” Billy whispers back and Freddy looks at him warily.

“That is not what we discussed,”

“It’s not, _not_ what we discussed either,” Billy counters. He technically agreed to nothing so he’s not lying.

“Billy!” Freddy fretted.

Just as Billy is contemplating just leaving his brother there, they hear Rosa yell from around the corner, “Boys is that you?”

Billy gives Freddy a pleading look but Freddy just shrugs, “Yeah Rosa, over here,”

Billy would curse if he knew it didn’t make Rosa mad as he hears her come around the corner, he quickly ducks his head and turns the other way.

“Hey boys, how was school?” She asks Freddy, and spots Billy on the staircase, “Hey Billy what are you doing?”

She looks expectantly at Freddy when Billy doesn’t answer or turn around to greet her, which is very unlike her foster son. Sure he can be shy, but he’s never rude.

There’s a very awkward pause where nobody says anything for a moment, Freddy just looks at her lost and Billy still has his back to her on the staircase. Billy can feel his heart beating in a panic because shit, he is done for.

Rosa crosses her arms and regards them both carefully, something is up.

“Okay boys, what’s up?” She asks.

“Nothing, I just was going to put my stuff in my room,” Billy says, he turns to her as inconspicuously as he can without showing her his full face. But when he sees her eyebrow raise, he thinks how obvious he must look with his face down and the hood of his jumper covering him.

Rosa was not born yesterday. She turns to Freddy and gives him her best ‘mom’ face.

As expected, Freddy caves instantly, “Billy’s hurt.”

Before Billy can process the utter pathetic betrayal by Freddy, Rosa is already up the stairs and manhandling him so she can check him over. Gezz if Freddy was going to rat him out so easily he could have picked a better phrase then _he was hurt_ , Rosa is freaking out.

“What happened, oh my god Billy what happened to your face?” She asks. She has his face clasped between her hands and moving it around so she can inspect every inch of it. He can’t do anything but be squished between her hands, his own arms failing uselessly at his sides. Its equal parts ridiculous as it is embarrassing.

“It’s nothing,” He tries but by the look he receives from his foster mom he quickly shuts up. _If looks could kill._

“Come,” She clasps Billy’s hand firmly and leads him down the stairs into the living room, Billy follows with his head hung down but glares at Freddy when they pass him. Freddy doesn’t look all that sorry though, more like _I told you this would happen it will be easier to just accept your fate, “_ Victor! We need first aid now!”

Billy winces at her tone as he’s pushed onto the couch, and she sits on the coffee table in front of him. She’s staring deep into his eyes but he can only keep contact for a few seconds before he looks at his hands. The worst part is, she doesn’t even look mad. She’s worried, concerned, anxious, a little frustrated maybe but not angry. Billy feels sick.

Victor comes in with the first aid kit, Freddy limping behind him. He’s eyes go wide as he sees Billy, “Wow son, what happened.”

Rosa turns to her husband and they share a look full of secret communication.

“Is it just your eye?” She asks turning back to Billy. Billy doesn’t really trust his words right now, because he’s trying very hard not to be overwhelmed by everything at the moment. This is all new territory for him and he would never say it aloud, but he’s scared. Scared of their reaction, scared they’ll be mad or pity him. Scared they’ll think he’s weak or pathetic. He’s scared they’ll look after him and treat him with the kindness he’s not sure he deserves.

When he doesn’t answer she sighs and gets to work dabbing at his face and cleaning any excess blood. He was hit pretty hard and blood came from his nose but it isn’t broken, and his eye is just bruised so she hands him an ice pack to rest on it although it’s probably a bit late.

When she’s done all she can for his face she sighs heavily and takes his hands in her own, rubbing a thumb over his palm. It feels nice.

“I’m only going to ask once, and I promise I won’t be mad. But can you please tell me what happened sweetie?”

Billy looks up at her then Victor and Freddy, they’re all staring as impassively at him as they can. He considers lying, but he’s not sure they would believe he ran into a door.

“I got into a fight, I’m really sorry.” Billy doesn’t look at her when he says it, just at his shoes. He notices that his ankle kind of aches. He wishes he could sink into the floor at that moment, he doesn’t need to look at her to know she’s disappointed. Probably calculating how she can get this violent kid out of her home.

“I hope the other guy looks worse then,” Victor tries to make a joke but Rosa glares at him.

She eyes Billy suspiciously, because while it’s obvious there was a fight Billy is not a violent kid by nature. She’s seen violent kids, they’ve had some in their home and she knows what they’re like. She turns to Freddy who looks about as exasperate as she feels.

“That’s-that’s not. Billy!” Freddy exclaims, both parents turn to him, “It isn’t like that.”

Rosa cocks her head, she really wanted Billy to tell them, open up to them in this way. Decide they can be trusted, and they’ll take his side when he needs them to. But it looks like Billy is done talking for the day, so she turns to Freddy. She can always count on Freddy to tell the truth when it comes to his foster brother. Freddy may be good at a lot of things and manipulating the truth is one of them, but when it comes to Billy, he always does his best to make the other boy feel like this is home. If anyone understands what Billy’s going through it’s Freddy, and Rosa couldn’t be happier that they have latched on to each other in the way that they have.

She’s also grateful because while Freddy has become accustomed to the family dynamic it clearly scares Billy to death, so recently her and Victor have been relying on Freddy to let them know when Billy is really struggling with something.

When Billy was unusually quite at breakfast one morning, Freddy told them it was because he’d woken up from a nightmare. When Billy got a B+ on his math test he’d told Rosa so she could gush over it. When Billy had tried to hide a cold from them last week, Freddy had ratted on him so Rosa could mother him back into bed and force fed him chicken soup, much to the other boy’s embarrassment.

She’s hoping one day Billy will feel comfortable enough to come to them with his own problems, but for now she knows Freddy has his back regarding her newest quite son.

“These kids at school, big kids. They were picking on me,” Freddy starts crutch waving wildly in the air, he leaves out it isn’t the first time they’ve been bullying him, “Billy he saw and came over. He threw the first punch yeah, but then they ganged up on him. They beat the shit out of him and then spit on him as they walked away. Sure it was technically a fight but in any court of law it would have been a self-defense, he was just helping me.” He finishes lamely.

Honestly Rosa isn’t sure which part of her heart is broken more. The part where Freddy is being bullied at school and she didn’t know, the part where Billy got beaten to a pulp to defend his foster brother or the part where Billy didn’t automatically tell them this himself afraid they’d for some reason be upset with him.

A million aggressive thoughts go through Rosas head in that moment, thoughts about tracking down said children and giving them hell and thoughts about 9am tomorrow morning storming into that school to demand answers. But she pushes them aside for now, because she needs to deal with what is in front of her, and Billy needs her to be calm right now. She can see the way his throat bobs uncomfortably and his trying his absolute hardest not to let his lip quiver. He’s scared and she just wants to pull him in the tightest hug and never let go.

She shares a quick look with Victor, who is obviously thinking the same thing as he grips Freddy’s shoulder tightly.

She takes a deep breath and smiles as warmly as she can at Billy, taking both his hands in hers and ducking down to try and get him to make eye contact, he doesn’t.

“Billy, I’m proud of you.”

A lump forms in Billys throat and damn it he won’t cry. He huffs instead, “For what, getting in a fight? Getting my ass kicked?”

She nudges his cheek and he looks up at her reluctantly, god this kid has had it rough. She wants to wrap him in bubble wrap and protect him from the world.

“Violence is never the answer,” She says softly, “But I’m not mad. We’re not mad, we’re proud you would defend Freddy like that. You have such a kind soul Billy, you really do.”

She kisses the top of his head and she can see the tips of his ears go pink. She won’t lie and say its not one of the cutest things about her foster son. Actually, he does quite a lot of cute things that she’s grown to love, although she won’t tell a 14-year-old boy that. Even if embarrassing him has become one of her favorite pass times.

Talking seems like a lot right now, and if he was overwhelmed before it doesn’t begin to explain how he feels now. It’s all just so, much. He can’t process this kind of kindness, he doesn’t know what to do with it. He just nods at her, twiddling his fingers between hers as she continues to rub his palm.

“Alright mister, you didn’t answer before. Where else are you hurt?”

He looks up sheepishly at her, and again instinctually he considers lying to her. It’s like she can see right though him though as she gives him a stern look and he caves.

“Ugh, my ribs hurt a bit where they kicked me. But they don’t feel cracked, it just feels like a bruise and I think my ankles twisted. That’s it though,” He confesses.

Rosa tries not to think about how Billy knows what cracked ribs feel like compared to bruised ones, and for a second she almost feels sick. She just sighs, at least he was honest.

“Okay hon, here’s the deal. You’re not in trouble, but when you’re feeling better we’re going to have a long discussion on why violence isn’t the answer, and then an even longer one about what you can and should come to me and Victor about, and why you shouldn’t try to hide injuries like this from us. You are seriously hurt and we’ll have to keep a close eye on you for the next few days to make sure it’s all healing correctly,” She says sternly and he cringes, “Right now though Victor is going to strap up your ankle and check your ribs to make sure they’re not cracked, I’ll get you a change of clothes and we can camp out here for a movie night. I’m just going to make a few calls but I’ll be right back. Okay?” Rosa says easily, waiting for his confirmation. He tentatively nods and she smiles warmly at him, kissing the top of his head again and he ducks the way he does when he’s self-conscious.

“You don’t need to – “ Billy starts quickly but he is silenced by Victor who is already manhandling him, pulling him along the couch and grabbing his ankle to strap it up. Billy is embarrassed by how off balanced he is and startled by the sudden movements but melts into Victors touch as he begins to gently massage his ankle putting him at ease. It’s like they have some special super powers to make him comfortable and embarrassed at the same time.

“Stop kid, we got you,” Is all he says, and yeah. They do.

Victor straps up his ankle and makes him lie down to check his ribs to make sure they’re not cracked. He does so very thoroughly he might add. He is gentle where he knows they were bruised and tender on his left side, causing Billy to relax into the touch. But he’s less gentle on his other side causing him to squirm a bit. When Victor hits a particularly sensitive spot and Billy can’t help but giggle a little bit, he can see the twinkle of mischief in his foster father’s eyes letting him know that was more then intentional. Billy is mortified so he just closes his eyes tightly and prays for it to be over.

Victor takes pity on him though and lets him up claiming nothings broken just bruised, a silent promise on his face however that Billy _will not_ be hearing the last of that. He helps him change into a new set of clothing Rosa left with them, which he was a bit horrified to find are pajamas considering it was 4:15 in the afternoon. But he hadn’t bothered to complain, now he was just kind of tired.

He can see how other people let their guard down to this whole parent thing, letting them take over was certainly nice. Even if they were exploiting their power a bit.

Now, as Freddy had predicted and to Billys horror he was settled on the couch in the living room in pajamas with a blanket on his lap. From what he could smell Rosa was making hot chocolate in the kitchen. Billy felt stupid for how he had immediately reacted about Rosa and Victor finding out, once again they had proven him wrong. But he was still very uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Not that anyone seemed to _care_ that he was uncomfortable. If they thought it was because he was upset or worried they’d be the first to make him feel okay, but if it was because he wasn’t used to the affection or embarrassed they just tended to go over the top. It was a weird push and pull, Billy couldn’t decide what to do with it.

Freddy set down his crutch and took a seat next to Billy, wrapping the blanket around his own legs when Billy pulled up the comforter.

“I don’t want to say I told you so,” Freddy starts, “But I totally told you so.”

Billy rolls his eyes and pushes the younger boy gently, “Shut up,” He ducks his head embarrassed.

“Do you think they’ll just leave it?” Billy asks quietly. He’s doubtful about that, but a part of him was hoping they could just leave this as a learning experience for all.

“Oh no,” Freddy says straightforwardly, “I already heard Rosa on the phone with the school. She’s furious. Her and Victor have a meeting with the principal tomorrow. I honestly feel bad for that guy.”

Billy sighs and rests his head on the back of the couch.

“Its what they do man,” Freddy says easily, “You’re stuck with it now.”

Billy smiles, because yes. Yes he is.


End file.
